(Music Playing) Please.

Please be seated.

I declare the 55th commencement of Michigan State University's James Madison College, now open.

Today we celebrate the academic accomplishment of our newest Spartan graduates.

We begin our ceremony with the MSU Land Acknowledgment.

We collectively acknowledg that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples.

In particular the university resides on land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw.

We recognize, support and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan's 12 federally recognized Indian nations.

For historic indigenous communities in Michigan.

For indigenous individual and communities who lived here now, and for those who are forcibly removed from their homelands.

By offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.

We ask our guests to please rise, if able, and join with the students and faculty in singing America the Beautiful, accompanied by the MSU College of Music's Jazz Orchestra directed by University Distinguished Professor Rodney Whitaker, with Amanda Jane Ross.

O beautiful for spacious skies For amber waves of grain For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain America America God shed His grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.

Please be seated.

Thank you all for joining us today to recognize the achievement of these exceptional students.

Throughout my time at Madison I've been fortunate to witness the remarkable strength of our college, from our dedicated faculty and staff to our talented student body.

What makes our college truly special is this community as a whole, where outstanding educators guide promising students as they discover their potential and shape their futures.

Today, we must acknowledge those whose encouragement and sacrifice have been crucial to our graduates journeys.

Class of 2025.

Please stand and take a moment to recognize your loved ones whose support has made this day possible.

That's a lot of love.

Graduates, please.

Now, direct your attention to the faculty members who have guided your academic journeys.

I ask the faculty to please stand so our graduates and their supporter can express their appreciation.

You may be seated.

We enjoy this afternoon in th presence of some special guests.

JMC professor and member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

Doctor Lisa Cook will deliver our commencement address.

Katie Heater of the class of 2025 will present the student commencement address.

Other guests participating in the ceremony today are Professor Daniel Ahlquist and Professor Melissa Fore.

Also on the platform to honor this fine graduating class, MSU Trustee Rebecca Bahar-Cook, Associate Deans Linda Racioppi and Robert Brathwaite, assistant dean Jeff Judge professors Yael Aronoff, Allison Berg, Kirsten Brathwaite, Gene Burns, Jennifer Goett, Sejuti Das Gupta, Norman Graham, Louise Jezierski,Omowumi Olufunmbi Elemo-Kaka, Susan Stein-Roggenbuck, Brianne Wolf, and Matt Zierler.

Let' give them all round of applause.

We would like to recognize and thank Kelly Werner, who will be translating for the open captioning at our ceremony today.

And we would like to also recognize and thank the MSU College of Music's Jazz Orchestra for their performances today.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome our keynote speaker, Doctor Lisa Cook.

Doctor Cook brings exceptional credentials and experience to this podium.

Doctor cook currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where she was recently reappointed for a term extending to 2038.

Before joining the Federal Reserve, Doctor cook was a professor of international relations and economics here at JMC and MSU.

Doctor Cook's academic journey began at Spelman College, where she earned he bachelor's degree in philosophy.

As a Marshall scholar, she continued her education at Oxford University before completing her PhD in economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her impressive career includes service as director of the American Economic Association's summer training program, and as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under President Barack Obama.

She has also held position at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and is a National Fellow at Stanford University.

During her time at Harvard, Doctor Cook also served as Deputy Director for Africa Research at the cente for International Development.

It gives me great pleasur to welcome our keynote speaker, Doctor Lisa Cook.

Go green.

Say it again.

Go green.

All right.

Huge congratulations to the James Madison College class of 2025.

Yes.

Give yourselves a hand.

It is an honor to speak to this inspiring and talented graduating class.

Before I address the graduates, I would like to also thank those who helped you get here.

The parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, professors and mentors.

Let's give them another round of applause.

I would also like to thank Professor Rodney Whittaker and the MSU Jazz Band for being the soundtrack for the JMC commencement today and since time immemorial.

You're a national treasure an we appreciate your being here.

Thank you again.

As a professor's kid and as an MSU professor, I have come to treasure commencements as important milestones.

It i wonderful to be with you today.

The flowers are starting to bloom and the old garden, the lawns around Belmont Tower are turning the perfect shade of spartan green, and the ducklings are making their appearance on the red cedar after another chilly winter.

Campus is reaching peak beauty just in time for you to leave Michigan State.

I am full of optimism about everything that lies ahead of you.

Despite any sense of angst you might feel about moving on from Madison.

I hope you are filled with optimism to spring is a time of new beginnings.

You are ready for the next step.

Today marks the completio of a tremendous accomplishment and an exciting new beginning.

Some of you may be feeling uncertain.

That is natural.

And that feeling may be understandably heightened for some of you today.

Others of you may have detailed plans you are ready to execute.

Remember, if you keep your head down and your eyes fixed on the map, you may miss unexpected opportunities.

Life like Michigan weather is going to surprise you.

As you leave here I want you to remain optimistic and have confidence because you are ready.

When I was in your shoe graduating from Spelman College, I remember feeling unsure of what the world would have in store for me.

I did not imagine I would be a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, or even an economist.

I started Spelman as a physics and philosophy major.

I only came to see economics as a potential route several years after my graduation, following a chance encounter.

At the time, I was continuing my studies in philosophy in Senegal and were struggling to find the right prism through which to explore big questions that interested and motivated me.

I decided to set ou for an adventure of a lifetime hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

As luck would have it.

During the journey, I hiked with a British economist.

By the end of the trek he convinced me that economics held the tools to address the questions I cared about the most.

Within months, I moved back home, enrolled in classes to prepare for a Ph in economics, and began a path.

Ultimately that led me to Harvard, Sanford, Michigan State, and the Federal Reserve.

Today, you are leaving the safe harbor of Cass Hall and East Lansing ready to depart on your next adventure.

As you do, I would like to offer four guides for yo to navigate your journey ahead hope, curiosity, persistence, and a commitment to public service.

My first guide for you is Hope.

Hope is a value instilled in me from a very young age.

I saw my parents and family members face difficult challenges.

They persevered because they held out hope that their action would lead to a better future, not only for themselves, but for my sisters in me, our community and ultimately all of society.

I am proud to have followed in their footsteps as James Madison graduates.

I know if each of you has some corner of the world in which you have made a difference or wish to make a difference, it could have been through debate.

JMC center asks MSU for age ROTC, peer mentoring.

The third challenge a public service sorority or fraternity or model un among or the organizations.

Whatever interest you have to make progress you must undertake the difficult work of casting off old ways that no longer serve us and adopting new ideas, ne methods, and new technologies.

This process requires faith put into action.

Optimism expressed through effort.

The daily choice to believ that you can make a difference.

So as you proceed, when do you feel unsure?

I urge you to guard your sense of hope.

But hope guide you to a better future.

My next guide for you is curiosity.

I encourage you to remain curious for your attention and your time are among your most precious resources.

From your first year seminar MC 201 and 202 through your methods courses to your senior seminars, your studies honed, your capacity to seek new insights.

I urge you to ask questions.

Hunt for the best available information.

Reason through it and listen carefully to other points of view.

Remain curiou about what others can teach you and do not settle for easy answers.

It is imperativ that you continue to be filled with wonder about the world so that you can make it better.

Curiosity is magical, but it takes vigilance.

Practice and study to avoid stagnation and to reach new heights.

Curiosity will lead you to wonderful opportunities if you trust its guidance.

That leads me to my third suggestion for your journey ahead.

Be persistent.

As Madison graduates, you know about preparation.

To be persistent in your efforts, you need to continually prepare yourself for the next steps.

Even if you do not know the destination, it means grounding what you think and say and deep and informed.

Knowledge acquire through effort and reflection.

You are graduating at a unique time in the history of the world.

We have access to unprecedented quantities of data.

We have numerous tools to gather and analyze these data to understand and improve the world.

I encourage you to view learning as a lifelong pursuit.

I ask you to familiariz yourself with new technologies and tools such as artificial intelligence, and incorporate them into persistent preparation as a companion, not as a substitute to live an informed, productive, and fulfilling life.

My final guide for you is a call to service.

I know you understand.

This is James Madison.

Students.

Public servic is woven into the culture here.

Historically Madison graduates have entered public service jobs immediately after graduation in large numbers including with the Peace Corps, teach for America nonprofits and local, state, and federal agencies.

Over the course of my life, many of my proudest and most enriching memories were opportunities to serve.

Were any of you?

And for each like I was show of hands.

Anybody okay?

Some people.

Okay.

I can't see anybody.

Okay.

All right.

Or.

But you may remember the pledge.

I pledge my head to clearer thinking.

My heart to greater loyalty.

My hands to larger servic and my health to better living.

For my club, my community.

My country and my world.

Whether it was my time as a page in the Georgia Legislature, interning on Capitol Hill, serving on the executive committee of the American Economic Association, working at the U.S. Treasury and the white House, leading the AA summer program here at MSU, or now as a member of the Federal Reserve Board.

These opportunities, to us my knowledge, skills, and time to try to improve the world have been invaluable to me.

As proud Madison graduates look for different opportunities to serve the greater goo over the course of your lives.

Public service is not always easy, but it is always meaningful and deeply rewarding.

That could involve working in education or government, conducting research to expand our knowledge, inventing new technologies.

Volunteering for a nonprofit organization or mentoring more junior colleagues.

There are many ways, big and small, to serve.

So as you navigate your lives, ask yourself which paths will allow you t contribute to the greater good?

Graduates Spartans, you are entering the wider world, one filled with pressing needs and countless opportunities.

As you make your way.

Let hope be your constant companion as you make your way.

Heed your curiosity, honor deep knowledge and thorough, persistent preparation.

Embrace public service however you define it.

Growing up I was often inspired by a poem popularized by the scholar and spiritual mentor to Martin Luther King junior, Howard Thurman.

I am tired of sailing my little boat far inside the Harbor Bar.

I want to go out to where the big ships float out on the deep, where the great ones are.

Should my frail craft prove too slight.

For those waves that sweep the billows.

Or I'd rather go down in the stirring fight.

Than draws to death by the sheltered shore.

Graduates, I urge you to plant the depths of the deep oceans, where you will find the great questions that excite, challenge, and motivate you.

You will face rough waters, the route will change and your destination is not entirely known.

As I said, life like Michigan weather is going to surprise you, but you are prepared.

Your education and your experiences here have armed you with specific knowledge and skills, but also, more importantly, with a honed capacity to be curious, to persistently adapt, to serve, and to hope.

Congratulations, class of 2025.

I cannot wait to see what yo will discover on your journey.

Thank you.

We will.

We will now hear again from the MSU College of Music Jazz Orchestra playing Things to Come, composed by Dizzy Gillespie.

(Music Playing) (Music Playing) To the class of 2025.

We are deeply honored to share this day with you and your loved ones.

It is my heartfelt privilege to introduce your student commencement speaker for Jame Madison College, Katie Heater.

I have known Katie since day one of her career in JMC and was fortunate to have been her professor, led her study abroad to England and worked with her in community engagement projects including Generations Connect, where she matched local senior citizens with MSU students to foster meaningfu intergenerational friendships.

I've seen Katie grow from a curious, humble and eager student who came to JMC questioning everything to an accomplished young scholar and community member who still questions everything.

Katie's a multiple award winner and each award a testament to her dedication to excellence, scholarship and community engagement.

Katie is a deeply committed student, one who never stops pondering, synthesizing, reflecting, discerning discovering, and any other word that means nonstop brain activity.

I remember a time wher she sent me an email that said, this reminded me of your class, and it was a poem taped to a napkin dispenser at a New Orleans restaurant.

After watching How Can We Win?

By Kimberly Latrice Jones about the Black Lives Matter protest and systemic racism.

Katie sent me the link and said, you must show this in your classes, which I have.

And this thinking isn't jus connected to scholarly pursuits.

She thinks at length about how to create community in classrooms.

In one class she baked a seriously delicious chocolate birthday cake for a student from Wisconsin who couldn't be with her family to celebrate in JMC.

We're used to seeing exceptional scholars, but as people like Katie who remind us that in a world often marked by meanness and divisiveness, these gestures of care are not only needed.

They are essential in fostering a sense of belonging.

The brilliant novelist Georg Eliot wrote what do we live for if it is not to make lif less difficult for each other?

Katie makes life less difficult for us, and in those generous strivings she brings joy and meaning to our lives.

Her desire to form connections and build community means showing up for protests and roundtable discussions.

Noticing someone who is sitting alone in a classroom and moving to join them.

Taking notes for students with accommodations without ever being asked, and approaching life with what seems like a single minded purpose to make people feel valued.

Katie's invested in lov and support, intellectual growth and curiosity, and use every platform available to her to speak out against injustice and foster inclusion.

Please join me in welcoming your 2025 James Madison College student commencement speaker Katie Heater.

Thank you.

In thinking of what to say to you all, how to neatly synthesize the past four years in a five minute speech, four years in which we'v all shared common experiences.

Who could forget startin our second semester of college?

Virtually but many vastly different ones.

The task feels overwhelmingly intimidating.

How can I poignantly articulat all the club meetings, attended research papers?

Written books read.

I'm looking at you, doctor, for protests, organized, internships worked, then sessions shared with friends and tears shed when everything just felt a bit too overwhelming.

The truth is, I can't.

I won't be able to celebrate and highlight all your accomplishments, the tangible and intangible in the way they deserve to be.

I apologize in advance.

What I will try to do is draw on the lessons and experiences that I believe ties together, and to leave you with word that not only evoke a meaningful feelin as you conclude your time here, but also resonate with you as you go forward.

In a moment of self-awareness, though, I do recognize that most people probably do not remember what the commencement speaker said at their graduation.

So if nothing else I invite you to take these next five minutes to reflect on your time here, to think of a memory, to recall the butterflies that accompanied you walking into class that first day, and to appreciate how far you've come.

But first, I would be remis not to hold space for the hope that we lost in fear that we gained, among many other things, on that February night two years ago, and particularl for Ariel Anderson, Alexandria Verner and Brian Frazier, whos journeys in lives were stolen, though we may not have known them personally.

May we carry on their memory and honor their personhood as best we can.

Pondering momentous speeches I've heard in the past, I have five older siblings who, to my great fortune have pursued numerous degrees.

So I have been to many a graduation ceremony.

It is all too easy to gloss over the intricacies of an undergraduate journey to Revere the shiny, outward accomplishments of which there are many to be proud.

But forget the few minutes spent catching up with a friend before class, or the hard won understanding of that concep that had once seems so bizarre.

Read Emil Durkheim's Anomie, though it feels great to get that internship or acceptance or award, at least in my experience, that euphoria is all too fleeting and more so.

It is not those objectives that constitute a life.

No, it is the numerous small moments, some joyous, some not, that culminate into a story, a journey that is fraught, complex, and also beautiful.

Not because of those accolades, but because it is distinctly yours.

No one could have written it like you.

In a virtual forum hosted by Morehouse College, the brilliant, renowned Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat closes one of her reflections about migration, motherhood and community, asserting, we will be lost, we will be foun and our journeys will continue.

Another custom in momentous speeches is the spirited conclusion touting the setting out on a new path or one's entrance into the real world.

I want to be wary of positioning the future this way, as if the lives we've lived for more than 20 years don't count or took place on another planet.

Yes, undoubtedly.

In these next years we will be challenged and tested in new ways.

Swapping blue book exams for rental applications.

How exciting!

I know because in some ways the future has a beginning, but also a continuation of the journey we've forged these many years.

So too, as it pertains to the past, romanticizing our future not only paints an inaccurate picture of what's to come, but it dismisses the unquantifiable memories, events, pain, joy and love we will surely foster and experience.

Now there's one mor thing I would like to punctuate.

And then I promise I'll be done.

Each one of us has not made it here alone.

We are a mosaic of community, of family, friends, professors advisors, mentors of the person who has been on the receiving end of my anxiety filled emails about cluster course requirements.

Thanks Jeff and Lindsay for your endless patience of peopl whose names we may not remember, but who showed us kindness in a passing moment.

For all those that remind us of and serve as examples to the interconnectedness, the interdependence of humankind, it is these special relationships, no matter deep, enduring friendship or temporary familiarity, that have provided us with the strength and resilience to carry us onward.

As we continue our passages.

Let us remember and lean o the power of human connection.

It is together that we will be lost.

We will be found and our journeys will continue.

It is because of this interconnectedness that I must bring attention to this growing autocracy that is, among many othe atrocities, funding a genocide that actively dehumanizes, hurts and kills so many.

As we think about.

As we think about the opportunities that await us to make a difference.

Let us not forget that what harms one of us harms us all.

Congratulations, class of 2025 not only for the amazing things you have accomplished throughout your time here, but for the stories you've crafted, the kindness you have cultivated, and the love you have shown to others.

For the people that you are.

Thank you, Katie, for that amazing speech.

Class of 2025.

Congratulations on arriving at this moment.

I'm so happy for you.

And I'm delighted to be up here representing your faculty and staff to present yo as candidates for your degrees.

If you don't mind, I'd like to begin by taking a moment to speak to your loved ones who have come here to celebrate you.

To all the families and loved ones of the graduates here today, I want to say thank you.

Teaching this amazing group of students has been one of the joys of my professional life.

Thank you for raisin and supporting these remarkable young people who chose to come to GMC, knowing that it wouldn't be easy.

Who drew inspiration from their smart, dynamic classmates to try hard things, to push each other and themselves, to keep growing and striving?

Who took the... Who look at the challenges and injustices in the world around them with with inquisitive minds, analytica incisiveness and moral clarity, and who have the courage to stand up, speak out, and mobilize for justice, sometimes at very real personal cost, and who push us to keep evolving and growing and trying to better ourselves and our institution.

Your love and support has made all the difference on their journeys so far, just as it will in the years ahead.

As for you, class of 25, most of you arrived in the fall of 2021.

With Covid still looming large, with masks firmly affixed.

You came in as Democrats and Republicans, communists and libertarians, carnivores and vegetarians, and even though you could only see the top halves of each other's faces, you quickly built community in the classroom and in the hallways of your dorm during late night cram sessions for 201 exams.

And after receiving extensive feedbac on your first nearly 111 papers, you wrestled individually and collectively with question about democracy and citizenship, power, injustice, capitalism colonialism, and human rights.

You learne how to question your assumptions and those of others, to think critically and constructively about the world and your place in it all, in rooms that were either a little too hot, a little too cold, and all of wh You buil community through your activism, your passions, and your participation in college and university governance.

As you worked to make this institution more just and inclusive to hold our leaders accountable, to feed the hungry, fight climate change, and speak up for people who need advocates.

And yes, there may have been some breakdancing and some fashion shows along the way to when I was your age.

I used to talk to my dad about my future.

He would always ask me three questions.

What do you want to do?

What do you need to do to get there?

And are you willing to do it?

There's wisdom in these questions, and I hope you ask yourselves these questions in the years ahead as you figure out what you want to do and who you want to be.

But class of 2025 we don't want you to stop there.

The world needs you to not stop there.

As new college grads, you are stepping out into a world of unprecedented precarity.

It is a moment that highlight the importance of our endeavor here at JMC and of the toolkit you now carry with you as graduates.

It is a moment that demands in the words of Professor Flame, a knowledgeable and active citizenry, critical thinkers, empathetic listeners, compelling communicators, and visionary leaders who are committed to forging a more sustainable, healthy, equitable, and just society for everyone.

In this moment of upheaval and opportunity for you and for the world.

I invite you to ask yourselves a new version of my dad's questions, one that recognizes that our individual paths are intertwined with everyone and everything around us, as well as with the systems we've built.

I invite you to ask yourselves, what kind of world do we want to live in?

What do we need to d to bring this world into being?

And are we ready, willing and able to do it?

After four years of teaching you and learning from you, of seeing not only your brilliance in the classroom, but your bravery and your kindness and your care for your communities, of watching you grow and activate and stand up for what you believe in.

I can say without a doubt that yes, you are ready.

You are willing.

And you are most certainly able.

Now go do it.

Now, candidates, please rise.

Dean teas, on behalf of the faculty, I present to you the candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts from James Madison Colleg and Michigan State University.

Congratulations, graduates.

On behalf of the president, to whom the Board of Trustees has delegated the authority of the Stat of Michigan vested in the board, I confer upon all of you the degrees for which you have been recommended, with all the rights and distinctions to which they entitle you.

Jody Knol will announce the names of the graduates as they received their diplomas.

We ask the audience to be considerate and hold your applaus while graduate names are read.

The candidates now may now come forward to receive their degrees.

(Conferral of Degrees, Reading Graduate Names) Greetings.

Class of 2025.

Today marks the culmination of your journey at James Madison College.

As dean, it is my privilege to addres you on this momentous occasion.

When I reflect on your work over the last few years, I'm amazed by your impact.

Your collective footprint has extended far beyond our campu in the classrooms of Case Hall.

In your academic journeys, you've demonstrated how to engage thoughtfully and effectively with the world around you.

Some of you have conducte policy analysis in Washington, DC during your internships.

Other studied international relations at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Your independent research has contributed valuable insights to pressing global issues.

You've advocate against injustices and created initiatives that suppor our broader college community.

Each of you has foun unique ways to apply classroom theories to real world challenges.

The world you are entering now needs precisely what you have developed here.

Sharp minds capable of untangling complexity, ethical frameworks for decision making, and the courage to advocate for meaningful change from climate diplomac to emerging security challenges, from economic policy to human rights advocacy, the knowledge you've cultivated will serve you both your careers and our collective future.

Class of 2025.

As you leave our campus, you join a network of 10,000 Madison alumni who are making meaningfu contributions around the world.

Carry forwar the values of rigorous analysis, ethical leadership, and global citizenship that define our college.

We have every confidence in your ability to build a more just and sustainable world.

Congratulations, graduate.

We look forward to following your journey with pride.

Now, according to custom, you may now move your tassels from the right side of your caps to the left.

This act represents the conclusion of a great achievement and marks the beginning of a lifetime of dedicated service.

Congratulations, MSU alumni.

This concludes our ceremony.

You're all welcome to attend JMC's reception at Case Hall immediately following this ceremony.

To avoid congestion in the main lobby, families and graduate should try to meet up outside.

The faculty will now rise and recess through the Great Hall on the inside of the pillars, followed by the graduates audience.

Please remain seate through the entire recessional until the last graduate has exited through the back.

Thank you.

Please join us in singing th alma mater and MSU Fight Song.

With the help of the MSU College of Music's Jazz Orchestra.

MSU we love thy shadows When twilight silence falls Flushing deep and softly paling Oer ivy covered halls Beneath the pines well gather To give our faith so true Sing our love for Alma Mater And thy praises MSU.

(MSU Fight Song)